Korah's Rebellion, Luther's Protest

Korah’s Rebellion, Luther’s Protest

Why Protestantism is not Christian

Ἰωάννης Ἀποκάλυψις

(John Apocalypse)

© 2010 St. John The Forerunner Publishing

Preface

In this supplementary book you will find an in

depth view of Korah’s rebellion and how

protestantism is a type of this, the apostasy, as

well as how protestantism is not Christian. This

book is meant to explain, in greater detail, the

argument made in The End of Man: A Defense of

the Orthodox Church Against Protestantism. The

argument focused on Korah’s rebellion and how

God had dealt with it, and how that parallels the

protestant reformation. The similarities between

Korah’s rebellion and Luther’s protest are

staggeringly similar. This supplementary will

only serve to better inform the reader by

graphically showing why protestantism is not

Christian.

I have not set out to demonize anyone, I

am criticizing the belief not the person. By doing

this I hope to open the eyes of those who are

blinded by protestantism, to inform those who

consider the protestants Christian, that they are

indeed wrong. This booklet also serves to

elaborate on the warning given in The End of

Man: A Defense of the Orthodox Church Against

Protestantism. The warning of the apostasy,

which is happening before our very eyes. The

apostasy that started in 1054 A.D. Which then

gave birth to the protestant reformation in the

early 16th century. All denominations are not the

same and protestantism is not Christian, this will

be explained in this supplementary.

I have been criticized for not specifying

which protestant denomination I am speaking of

and accused of making blanket statements. This

is partially true. To me all protestantism shares

responsibility for this apostasy because if it were

not for early protestantism we would not have

the abundance of nonsense that we have today. If

a doctrine such as the rapture is brought up

should I only attribute it to the specific

denominations that accept it? I do not believe so,

because of Luther and the early reformers this

doctrine came about, therefore they are just as

responsible as the fool who invented it.

Therefore when the word protestantism is used it

is intended to encompass every single

denomination that is a direct result of the

reformation, this includes early protestant and

modern protestant. For those who think I might

be a bit too harsh you must know that it pains me

to say some of these things. My mother and

father are both protestant and it is difficult for

me to say many of these things. Yet these things

are true and must be said, and nobody should

refrain from speaking truth because it might

offend someone.

Korah’s Rebellion, Luther’s Protest

A deeper look into the book of Numbers

chapter 16 reveals some astonishing similarities

to our current situation. Korah, a levite, rebelled

with 250 others against Moses and Aaron. In

16:3 Korah states: “Let it be understood by you

that all the congregation are holy ones, and the

Lord is in them. Why then do you exalt

yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?”

Korah accuses Moses and Aaron of self

exaltation, the very sin they themselves are

guilty of. The first parallel however is when

Korah states that: “All the congregation are holy

ones.” Equating all the people to Moses, a

prophet of God and Aaron a priest chosen by

God. Martin Luther makes an eerily similar

statement in the 16th century citing that: “We are

all consecrated priests through baptism.” Later

the term “priesthood of all believers” was

coined. Korah proclaimed that there is no

distinction between clergy and laity and that

essentially all people were the same as Moses

and Aaron. Likewise Martin Luther creates a

belief that is not similar to the statement of

Korah, but exactly the same only worded

differently.

To further prove the insanity in Luther’s

protest we only need to look to his works. In his

work On the Babylonian Captivity of the

Church, Luther admonishes the Latin church by

saying they have no authority over them, the

protestants. Continuing in his tirade, Luther

attempts to explain why it is that all are priests in

the congregation of the Lord. What Luther

forgets is that for his theology to work, then he

must believe the scripture is inaccurate, which

would conflict with his other invented belief,

sola scriptura. But Luther is wrong, and for this

reason, Mt. 16:18 states: “Upon this rock I will

found My church, that even the gates of hell

shall not prevail against it.” If the church was

overcome then why is this verse in scripture?

The true church will not be overcome by

anything, and this according to what Christ says

in the verse above. The true church has been

here since the time of Moses, why would it need

to be changed all the sudden? Luther is indeed

correct in many of his criticisms against the

Latin church, but why did he go his own route

and not back to Orthodoxy? 

Luther most certainly knew of Orthodoxy, he was a Latin

monk and most likely had access to this kind of

information. It was only less than 40 years after

the council of Florence (1438-1445) that Martin

Luther was born. This was a council between the

Latin church and Eastern Orthodoxy. This is why

I believe it was Luther’s intent to recreate the

Latin church based on his personal belief, or to

create a whole new church of his own. This

behavior is also seen in Korah. He was a levite

and fully understood the laws and church

structure, and even seen the miracles done by

Moses. Yet Korah persisted in his ignorance.

This leads to the next parallel, self

exaltation. Moses was appointed by God as a

prophet and Aaron appointed as a priest,

therefore Korah exalted himself up to their status

by acting on his own authority and not on Gods.

He then accused Moses and Aaron of self

exaltation, when it was Korah and his followers

who exalted themselves to a God given rank.

How does this parallel to protestantism? Luther,

and other protestants of his time and ours,

invented doctrines foreign to Christendom at any

period in Christian history. Luther created his

own church based on his own interpretation of

scripture, throwing out 1,500 years of teaching

for his own personal interpretation and radical

theology.

One of these doctrines that Luther created

was the belief that scripture is sole authority. If

this doctrine is true, then who has the authority

to interpret scripture? In protestantism everyone

is a priest, which means that everyone has

authority to interpret the scriptures. Luther

believed that this authority was given at baptism,

yet isn’t baptism a mere symbol for protestants?

This is just another, amongst many, protestant

teachings that conflicts with other protestant

teaching. And again this doctrine shows just how

self absorbed the protestants are in believing that

not only is everyone a priest but anyone can

interpret scripture. The protestants raise

themselves up to a rank that only God can call a

person to, and only God has the authority to do

so, therefore it is self exaltation. Another form of

self exaltation is salvation in a moment, and to

proclaim yourself to be saved when judgement

has not come is arrogant and unwise. Arrogant

because the person is assuming that they have

nothing to worry about and brazenly proclaim

that they are saved. Unwise for these reasons:

“The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the

tongue that speaks proud things.” Ps. 12:3 “The

Lord will destroy the house of the proud.” Prov.

15:25 “He hath scattered the proud in the

imagination of their hearts.” Lk 1:51 “Whoever

exalts themselves will be humbled, and he who

humbles himself will be exalted.” Mt. 23:12, Lk

14:11 and 18:14. 

Self appointed authority, as in

Korah’s case, is unacceptable, and judging by

the verses above, God does not approve of this

mindset. In Num. 16:31 God responds to Korah

by opening up the earth and swallowing him,

and fire consumes the others, showing us that no

one can worship God on their own terms or how

they choose to. In the Apocalypse 12:15-16: “And the

serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood

after the woman, that he might cause her to be

carried away of the flood. And the earth helped

the woman; the earth opened her mouth and

swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast

out of his mouth.” 

This verse not only refers to 

the current apostasy, but also of Korah’s. This

dragon spews forth water which is interpreted as

many heresies. The serpent let the floodgates of

his mouth open in the 16th century, after

misleading the Latins 500 years before. The

serpent let the floodgates of his mouth open by

deceiving Korah into rebelling against Moses

and Aaron. (Notice that all the things the devil

speaks are lies, hence the name father of lies, so

this flood from his mouth is a multitude of lies

meant to deceive. Therefore while protestantism

may seem Christian they are heresies meant to

lead the church into apostasy.) Korah was

swallowed up by the earth when it opened, just

as the flood that came after the woman, who is

the church. Just as the flood is meant to

overcome the church so too is this apostasy of

hundreds of thousands of denominations with

hundreds of thousands of beliefs. These serve no

other purpose than to deceive people and then

make them complacent once they have been

deceived. If all of these denominations are true

and are not heresy or apostasy, then why should

we be Orthodox if the alternative is much easier?

If we can attain salvation in any of these

denominations, that are much easier, why

struggle the Orthodox spiritual life? This what

any sane individual would logically conclude,

but quite frankly all of these denominations are

apostates and heretical.

Also in the time of Christ existed many

sects of Judaism. Among these were the

Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes,

Galileans, Genistae and Meristae, and the

Hellenians and Hellenists. Not exactly one

cohesive religious system. These sects are a

result of years of apostasy and judging by the

Jewish history it is not surprising that this

happened. Each of these sects had beliefs that

differed from one another. But the common

theme that bound each sect was their perversion

of the prophecies of Christ and the whole of

scripture in general. Instead of understanding

scripture properly they had opted to interpret it

for what they wanted it to mean instead of what

it truly meant. For instance the Jews wanted a

worldly king, like David, who would free them

from Roman rule, instead of a poor carpenter

who admonished them instead of praised them.

This is why the Jews could not imagine

Jesus being their messiah. They would not

accept Him because He was not what they

wanted Him to be. Comparing this to

protestantism, in our modern day there exist

hundreds of thousands of denominations and

each one have a different interpretation of

scripture. Not surprisingly there are many

heresies surrounding the second coming just as

there were about Christ when He first came.

What is satan’s purpose for this? The Jews were

deceived by satan so that they would kill Christ.

Unknown to satan at the time was that Christ is

God and that this was all planned. Likewise

satan has setup a similar scenario today, the Jews

will be tricked into thinking that the antichrist is

God, because they are waiting on the coming of

their messiah. He will perform worldly miracles

and capture the minds and heart of many with

flattering speeches. 

The protestants are waiting on Christ to return and 

take them up into the clouds in what they call the rapture,

 and is based on a perverted interpretation of 1 Thess. 4:17

“Then we who are alive and remain shall be

caught up together with them in the clouds to

meet the Lord in the air.” This verse is speaking

about the day of judgement, as the preceding

verse clearly states: “And the dead in Christ shall

rise first.” Which happens on judgement day.

The rapture was dreamed up by a terrified soul

who wanted to believe that no Christian would

suffer in the end. According to Mt. 24:24 and

Mk. 13:22, clearly Christians (the elect) are here

in the time of the antichrist and could possibly

even be deceived.

This is exactly what rebellion does, cause

more problems. It is just a way of saying: “I can

do better.” There is no doubt in my mind that

both Korah and Luther believed this, judging by

their words and actions. Even many of today’s

protestants believe that they do not need

anything except the Bible, even though Christ

never says this. In fact Christ says the opposite:

“You search the scriptures, for in them you think

you have eternal life.” (Jn. 5:39) This is one of

the few times Christ mentions scripture, and it is

clearly not in support of relying on scripture as

the sole authority. Is it correct to draw

comparisons between the rebellion of Korah and

protestantism?

I believe it is correct because I believe

scripture is warning us about protestantism. In

Num. 16:30 Moses tells the people: “Then you

shall know that these men have provoked the

Lord.” This was stated after Moses told the

people that the earth would swallow up Korah.

This shows that God was not fond of these

people who not only rebelled against Moses and

Aaron but against that which God established,

hence they rebelled against God Himself! Why

would God despise this action only to change

His mind in the 16th century when Martin

Luther did, and said, the same thing? Clearly

God did not immediately open up the earth and

swallow all of the protestants, simply because

they are somewhat ignorant, while Korah, a

levite, should have known better. Is this rebellion

apostasy? “For that day will not come unless the

falling away (apostasy) comes first, and the man

of sin is revealed.” 2 Thess. 2:3 This falling

away does not happen only in the time of the

antichrist but has been happening since Christ

established the new covenant. As St. Paul tells

us: “For the mystery of iniquity is already at

work: Only He who now restrains will do so

until He is taken out of the way.” 2 Thess. 2:7

This should be obvious to anyone, the mystery

of iniquity is the apostasy. Iniquity in the

original Greek means lawlessness. To rebel or

protest brings lawlessness and chaos.

Considering protestantism an equal to

Orthodoxy is madness. Did Moses embrace

Korah and tell him that he is right and that we all

are equal? How can we accept protestantism

without making Orthodoxy relative and

obsolete? As stated earlier, if we can attain

salvation while doing less, why not take the path

of least resistance? It is complete insanity on the

part of some of the leaders in our church to

accept protestantism as Christian. If we accept

them as Christian then we are validating their

erroneous beliefs, doctrines, dogmas and

everything else negative that they bring. We

would be telling our own people that

protestantism is true and that this mass confusion

of 38,000 denominations, is indeed the same as

Orthodoxy. How stupid and foolish! Also there

are many Orthodox that believe the apostasy to

be specific to the time of the antichrist, and

therefore protestantism cannot be the apostasy

St. Paul spoke of. This makes no sense

whatsoever. St. Paul makes it very clear that

even in his time the mystery of iniquity

(lawlessness) was at work, therefore satan has

been working at flooding the church with heresy

since the time of St. Paul. Our early history

demonstrates that satan had been vigorously

attacking the church, chipping away small

portions of this rock called Orthodox

Christianity and eventually he separated a large

portion from the whole. In the early part of the

church were heresies like arianism, nestorianism,

chilliasm or millenialism, montanism, etc. In the

present day we have thousands upon thousands

of varieties of protestantism to choose from. This

flood, which is now mostly composed of

protestant denominations masking themselves as

Christian, most likely started with arianism, but

could even be traced back to Korah. The

example of Korah teaches us that you cannot act

upon your own authority and the protestants,

who act upon their own self appointed authority,

are no better than Korah. To accept them as

Christians is to reject God, just as Korah did, and

would make us as the 250 that followed Korah.

If defining a Christian is as one who believes

Christ, then nearly everyone is a Christian just

for merely believing in Christ. It would mean

that Adolf Hitler was Christian because he

believed in Christ’s existence. It is not Christian

to consider protestants Christians.

Sources

Martin Luther, Weimar Ausgabe, Vol. 6 p. 407

Timothy Wengert, The Priesthood of all Believers and other

Pious Myths, p.12

Norman Nasel, Luther and the Priesthood of all Believers,

Concordia Theological Quarterly 61

Alister Mcgrath, Christianitys Dangerous Idea, Ch.2

Marcel Simon, Jewish Sects at the Time of Jesus, p. ix

World Christian Encyclopedia 2001, Number of Christian

Denominations

31